When the Nintendo 64 came out in 1996, 12-year-old Taylor Eichhorst begged his parents to buy him the video game console.

The answer he usually got was no. Then one day his parents told him if he played well during one of his hockey games, they would buy him the Nintendo system.

“I think I scored like four goals, and I never scored goals,” said Eichhorst.

He got his N64.

“After that hockey was kind of dead to me.”

Eichhorst, and his longtime friend Michael Berger, have now made gaming their full-time job. In 2017, the pair quit their jobs at two prestigious tech companies in Regina, and started their own independent game development company — BitCutter Studios.

While the two collaborate on ideas for games, each has their own specialties. Berger handles business responsibilities and the more complex programming tasks, while Eichhorst works mainly on the games’ visuals, art and music.

The company has released a preview version of one game called Balloonatics for players to purchase and test, a practice known as early access. The game, which can be played with a virtual reality headset, is a multiplayer game in which players pilot floating baskets suspended by balloons. Each player is armed with an array of weaponry that they need to use to shoot the balloons above another player’s basket. Berger described the game as similar to Mario Kart’s battle mode.

Another in the works is a virtual reality rhythm game called Groove Gunner, in which players shoot targets to the beat of music. BitCutter is allowing independent artists to submit their music to be included in the game. Berger said they’ve received submissions from around the world, and intend to financially compensate each artist when the game is released.

Berger and Eichhorst both attended Winston Knoll Collegiate, and reconnected about seven years ago when they began developing games as a hobby. Berger had always enjoyed playing video games, but the projects helped him discover that he enjoyed making them even more. They gradually got more serious about designing games, and in February of 2017 decided to turn their hobby into a business.

Taylor Eichhorst, left, and Michael Berger of BitCutter Studios sit in Eichhorst’s home office. The pair work on video games that utilize virtual reality.BRANDON HARDER /
Regina Leader-Post

Both men walked away from stable jobs in Regina’s tech sector. Berger was a manager at ISM, a subsidiary of IBM Canada. Eichhorst was the head user experience designer at GasBuddy, a successful local startup that was purchased by an American company in 2013.

Berger felt he was well-compensated at ISM, but wanted to get back to being hands-on with creating software.

“We enjoyed the work so much, and we wanted to make it something that we could do all the time. The dream is to have a job that you love to do right?” said Berger.

Eichhorst had been teaching himself how to make games, and was yearning to be at a smaller company where he could have more freedom.

“I’m a little bit of a control freak when it comes to creativity, so I find it hard to work on big teams. That’s one of the reasons I quit GasBuddy, “ said Eichhorst.

BitCutter hasn’t brought in enough revenue from Balloonatics alone to sustain itself. Eichhorst and Berger are spending half their time doing contract application development to bring in more money. More game ideas and prototypes are constantly being brewed, and the hope is one of their games will be successful enough to give them a nice financial runway.

Berger would eventually like to see the company grow to the point where it could have multiple teams working on different projects. Whether BitCutter will stay in Regina is still hard to say. Berger said the city has a lot of game development talent, which he’s seen in action at the city’s annual game jams. The problem is financial incentives.

Berger said government incentives would make it easier for companies to grow and stay alive. Last year, the Saskatchewan government introduced a pilot program aimed at tech startups that offers a 45 per cent non-refundable tax credit for individual and corporate equity investments.

The incentive isn’t a good fit for BitCutter at the moment. It’s geared towards investors rather than the company owners, and Berger didn’t initially structure the business with the intention of chasing venture capital. Berger said most provinces offer tax credits for the actual companies, which would be much more beneficial to him.

Nova Scotia recently started offering such an incentive, and as result Berger said the province is experiencing a boom in game development activity.

“It’s kind of sad but there’s incentives to leave the province for this type of work,” he said.

Taylor Eichhorst of BitCutter Studios stands in his home office wearing an HTC Vive virtual reality headset. The game designer works on games that utilize virtual reality. The game Groove Gunner, which the studio has not yet released, is superimposed over Eichhorst by way of an in-camera double exposure, giving the viewer a look at what he sees when playing the game.BRANDON HARDER /
Regina Leader-Post

Grants are another avenue, and Creative Saskatchewan did pilot an interactive digital media grant in 2017. The grant was put under review in 2018, and a revised version of it is currently under review. It’s scheduled to reopen later this year, and Berger said he’ll consider applying.

Regina has no major game development studios. Even BitCutter’s two-man operation makes it one of the more established studios on the city. Saskatchewan is not an easy environment for startup game developers, but Berger and Eichhorst are fully aware of that. Their passion for making games outweighs those challenges.

“The thing I like the most about video games is when I get to see someone play it and have fun, and know that I made that, and I dunno it’s just a cool feeling,” said Eichhorst.

Berger is fine with having left behind what could have been a comfortable path to retirement. This is much more exciting.

“I’m definitely making a lot less money so far, but the potential is there, and I’m certainly enjoying it,” he said.